Dark Knight Rises director Chris Nolan has spoken dismissively of 3D before, but it can’t hurt to reiterate…what the hell. DGA Quarterly‘s Jeffrey Ressner did the asking, transcribing and composing.

“3D is a misnomer,” Nolan says. “Films are 3D. The whole point of photography is that it’s three-dimensional. The thing with stereoscopic imaging is it gives each audience member an individual perspective. It’s well suited to video games and other immersive technologies, but if you’re looking for an audience experience, stereoscopic is hard to embrace. I prefer the big canvas, looking up at an enormous screen and at an image that feels larger than life. When you treat that stereoscopically, and we’ve tried a lot of tests, you shrink the size so the image becomes a much smaller window in front of you. So the effect of it, and the relationship of the image to the audience, has to be very carefully considered. And I feel that in the initial wave to embrace it, that wasn’t considered in the slightest.”